5 Nov 2018

Art Bengaluru 2018 - A Celebration of Contemporary Art

Art Bengaluru 2018 - Ongoing at UB City

The 2018 edition of Art Bengaluru brings together 17 Indian artists across 24 exhibits to UB City, the centrally located mall in Bangalore. This year, one can see photography, mixed media artworks, oil paintings, acrylics, pen and ink drawings, sculptures (from wood, steel and paper) and video projects, all arranged aesthetically adopting a cohesive approach, and there are some very interesting works to be seen at the mall. Since, it's a public space, anyone can walk in to view the art. The exhibition scores high in terms of accessibility, display and lighting. With several outreach programmes the footfall is expected to be high.

Saju Kunhun

Balan Nambiar

The display has been put together exceedingly well and it begins at the foyer with Balan Nambiar's large stainless steel sculptures and continues inside the mall with his enamel works and a large painting by Gurudas Shenoy (a 20 ft multipanel work on the ground floor, which forms a stunning focal point). His natural and urban semi-abstract canvases form an extensive collection at Sublime Galleria on the 8th floor as well.

Vipta Kapadia and Kavita Jaiswal are among other artists that are displayed on the ground level and their abstracts - quiet and meditative by the former and heavily textured and layered by the latter are captivating. The large linear hillscapes in pen and ink on paper from 1986 by D Venkatapathy, the senior founder member of the Cholamandal Artist Village are intricately detailed in black and white.

Gurudas Shenoy

Parvathi Nayar

The centrally located exhibits of the 2nd floor showcase works by Parvathi Nayar, Romicon Revola, Ashu Gupta and Saju Kunhan. Parvathi’s graphite drawings explore water in its simultaneous ubiquity and scarcity, portrayed through the entire spectrum of perspective - from bird’s eye to microscopic. Romicon video works offer an interesting narrative, where one invites the viewer to contemplate and meditate on a single drop of water and the other engages with the phenomenon of the urban sprawl. She says, "The urban sprawl is like the mythical hydra: a creature that grows two new heads every time one of its heads is cut off."

Romicon Revola

Bothysathavur , S Ravi Shankar & Ganesh Selvaraj play with symmetry with paper and wood, 'these exhibits are tethered by strict geometrical forms employed by the artists; from the perspective-altering curves and lines of Yuvan’s work on plywood, to Ravi Shankar’s architectural laser-cut paper sculpture that transform in different angles of light, and Ganesh’s intense assemblages of magazine paper on board'.

On the first floor, photography and photo media by Devangana Kumar and Rohaan Sulaiman are exhibited. Devangana recreates postcards from mid-nineteenth century that are based on Indian servants employed by British and which presents them as commodified subjects. The artist's large format digital recreations attempts to reinstate dignity and identity and humanise them. "Rohaan’s documentation of Naga tribes and wildlife explore themes of migration, adaptation to rapidly evolving habitats and preservation of tradition," according to Abhishek Naidu, curator.

Pallon Daruwala

Pallon’s exhibit features a selection of works from the new edition of his Vertical Horizon series, which aptly titled, capture a diverse series of subjects and settings that are as thought provoking and disorienting as they play with the 'normal' and turn around perspectives.

With curated art walks, the festival also aims to contribute to art education among both children and adults. Art Bengaluru 2018 has partnered with several schools (Parikrma Centre of Learning, Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology and Dr. Beltran’s Animation School, to name a few) to take their students through curated walks to help them better understand and appreciate the arts.

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